Chinese Transparency on Display
When I arrived in China as a pure American, one of the things that struck me the most was that in China, yes means no and no means yes. China is an opaque culture in that way. A Wushu teacher taught me that Westerners are specific (具体）and the Chinese are blurry (模糊). As such, he did not like to hang out in Canada where he often worked. In these days, we have a great example of Chinese transparency on display, so let’s turn to that.
China keeps putting out official numbers like 15,000 daily cases of covid or 5000 dead of Covid total. Just today, under criticism from the usually loyal World Health Organization, China suddenly said 60,000 dead. Therefore, Western reporters hang out at Chinese crematoriums trying to find out real numbers of dead from Covid.
When China said 60,000, they quibbled over why they have been saying 5000. No one believes the 60,000 number either. I know a doctor and know not to ask her how many she sees dying.
An official in Henan province said as of Jan 6, 89M people out of 99M total in the province got Covid in the last month.
Official data for the whole country Jan 16 showed officially just 503,000 infected total up to today.
Chinese Transparency Issues Means We Must Search For Real Data
Who should we believe? Unfortunately, whatever is most embarrassing to the Chinese government is likely true. Truly, 90% of China has gotten the virus is not a bad guess based on my friends and I who have gotten it in various areas of China over the last month.
Ok, so this is politics and worldwide politicians do not have a good reputation for honesty. However, the Wushu teacher and our experience does give everyone a taste of just how big the transparency problem in China is. Our data shows that 72% of Chinese people are lying to get the job offer. They know how to do it well.
We know how to find out the real data from the raw data we get in interview and resume. That leads us and our customers to the right hire again and again. Raw data leading to real data overcomes lack of transparency around us, result in vastly better hiring.